Improvement in railway-switches



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL T. DUTTON, OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 158,052, dated December 22, 1874; application led October 7, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL T. DUTTON, of the city and county of Worcester, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railway Facing-Points and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view, and Fig. 2 a side elevation.

The purpose vof this invention is to increase the safety of railway traveling by providing eicient means for rigidly securing the facingpoints or rails before a train is signaled to pass, and during the time any portion of the train may be passing, to give a more gradual divergence from one line to another than has been usual, to obtain a better movement of switches, to prevent the possibility of the points being foul by the opening of both tongues at one time, and to indicate whether the facing-point is properly closed or not. To accomplish this, I make the switches from twenty to twenty-two feet in length, and instead of connecting and moving the switchtongues together, as at present, connect them and move them separately, either by the separate motion of two levers, or the successive action of one lever, but in such manner that only one tongue can be moved at a time. Also, instead of connecting the rod moving them at one point to the switch, as at present, I connect the switch to the single rod by cranks at two or more places in its length, thereby holding the switch firmly and equally against the stock-rail at different points in its length. To secure thel facing-tongue close up to the rail and keep it there, I place at the point of each tongue, by preference, a cam, moving on a stud or center on the point-chair, each of said cams being connected to and moved by the opposite switch. It follows that when either of the switch-tongues is opened, it will cause the other tongue, which then becomes the facing-switch (if close up to the rail) to be secured in its place, and, as the open or free switch cannot be closed while a train is passing or standing in them, the facingswitch thereby remains secured. In case anything should by design or accident prevent the proper closing of the facing-point, it would be at once detected, for it would be impossible for the pointsman to move the other switch until the complete closing of the first.

a represents the facingswitch, secured against the stock-rail a b, the open switch, away from the stock-rail b; c, the cam, securing the facing-switch against the point; and c, the cam against the projecting lug n n on the switch b. el d are the slide-chairs, tted with a stud, on which the cams c and c work, and e ejf g g cross-rods, coupling the switches to the cranks h h i z" j j. lis the rod from the working-lever, which gives motion to the actuating-crank m, alternatelyacting upon the escapementcranks h and h', the former connected to the near switch b, the latter to facing-switch a. A checkon the chairs might be used to prevent the tongues from being opened or swung by the flanges of the wheels passing through them, and also double rods from the points may be taken up near to the working-lever, and the escape or forked cranks fixed there, instead of near the points. This would in some instances lead tothe detection of anything wrong with the points.`

The subject matter of this application is already secured by English Patent No. 230, 1874.

I am aware that the use of locking-cams c c is not of itself new; but

What I claim isl. The combination of the two-cammed lever m and the two three-armed levers, having each two opposite inclines on the end of one arm, with two separate trains of mechanism, one extending to and operating each switchrail, as shown and described, so that the facing-rail will always move after the other rail.

2. The combination, with cams on elbowlever ends, of two separate trains of mechanism for operating the rails, one before the other, as set forth, so that the facing-rail will always be unlocked by the movement of the other switch-rail.

The above specication signed by me this 24th day of March, 1874.

SAMUEL TELFORD DUTTON. [L. s.)

Witnesses:

WILLIAM PAGE,

Lowesmoor, Worcester. ALED. LUcAnoN WELLS,

Britannia Square, Worcester. 

